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Friday, February 24, 2012

If there is one trait I would love Hugh & Charles to be known for (they already have gentlemanly names in my opinion), it would have to be being a gentleman….opening doors, pulling out chairs for ladies, wonderful manners etc. etc. etc.!

Until then, I can push them in the right direction and dress them and their rooms in such a manner.

2. How cute would this be hanging on the wall? I love it (which is why I saved the image for a DIY in the boys rooms, but have no idea where I found it…do you know? Please let me know so I can credit).

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

If you' have been a follower of the blog for a while, you will remember we documented Hugh’s first year HERE. Now Charles first year is complete, I have finished his first year project as well!

Ohhh look how my baby has grown! My favourite 2 expressions are the one that is right in the middle (caught him in the middle of a big chuckle) and the bottom left (playing peekaboo).

Comparing the 2 boys, they are so different. Both in looks (I think the photo that is closest looking to Hugh is the photo 2nd from the right on the bottom) and personality. Hugh is a sensitive soul and is always asking if I’m happy, are you ok?, and gets upset a lot…..Charles on the other hand is always happy (well except for ‘bitching hour’ from 4.30 until he is fed!) and smiley…..but they are both gorgeous!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

I know I normally only cover nursery and associated items, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give my readers tickets to the Better Homes and Garden family day out (Melbourne 24-26th February).

This fabulous LIVE event brings to life the pages of Australia’s favourite magazine, providing home makers, DIY enthusiasts, keen gardeners and aspiring cooks with inspiring new ideas for their home and garden.

Don’t miss live stage shows from your favourite TV presenters, inspiring ideas, workshops and products for you to try and sensational shopping from over 250 exhibitors. Plus, with plenty of entertainment for the children, this is an unbeatable day out for the whole family!

All your favourite Better Homes and Gardens TV experts will be there and you can see them LIVE! Graham Ross, Tara Dennis, 'Fast' Ed, Karen Martini, Jason Hodges, Rob Palmer and Johanna Griggs will take to the stage to share their creative and original ideas to help you make yours a better home and garden! Click here to view the stage timetables.

Monday, February 13, 2012

I showed you here, Charlie’s 1st birthday invite and a hint of what was to come. We celebrated my baby’s party on the weekend with about 40 friends and family and had a great time.

Of course I left everything until the last minute (which is why there have been no blog posts in the last 1.5 weeks!) but I got nearly everything I wanted to achieve. Are you ready for a picture overload?

The sweet table original plan was to have 3D beach boxes as a background (like Brighton Beach) but I couldn’t achieve the look I was after, so ended up just going plain!I made the cake and Mum iced it.I looove these gorgeous glass containers, filled with blue heaven jelly with their personalised spoon.I based the food labels on the surf life saving flags.The lollipops were a hit with the kids and for something a bit different I propped them up in some thongs (flip flops).You can’t have a beach party without tacky cocktail umbrellas!Pearls: AKA kool mints in oyster shells on brown sugar sand!Marshmallow ice-creamsA cute little print I made up for the tableI suppose I did need to do something healthy on the table and the fruit cups were it!The savoury table (side note: I love my kitchen and it’s beautiful big bench….about 1.8m square).Thank god for pintrest! I found the 2 below ideas on there…..the first is simply a baguette scooped out and filled with dip. The other is fetta, tomato and basil drizzled in balsamic vinegar (I don’t eat tomato, but apparently they were delish!).It’s all in the details and I know no-one noticed, but the ice in the champers bucket was fish shaped!Glass labels.Personalised Charlie cups (yes, I told you I went overboard!)I decided to make a few signs to great out guests. Ignore the fact that we still don’t have a front yard!I found this beach scene and knew it would go perfectly along our fence to add to the tropical theme!And you can’t go to the beach and not know the surf report!How cute is this sign?A few beautiful leaves for our coffee table in our Alfresco.And on our kitchen table, I simply filled our hurricane vases with shells.These 3 amazing women saved the day! I couldn’t of finished of everything without the help of my beautiful Mum, my Grandma and my cousin Sarah. They prepped the food, mopped, occupied the kids while I finished things, cut, sewed etc. etc. etc.!And here is the birthday boy with my Mum. Don’t you love his singlet? It’s from Rock Your Baby and co-incidentally, Hugh also wore a ‘Hanging with your Gnomies’ t-shirt for his birthday. I hope whatever our #3 baby’s party theme is, they have one to match as well (not that #3 is on the horizon yet!).

And here’s the back of the singlet.Cake time! Look at those gorgeous baby blues!A quick 3/4 family shot (Hugh was still asleep).Ahh now he’s awake!

Did you notice his t-shirt? Yep, Lifesaver on duty!And finally my bff’s!

It wasn’t as retro as I wanted originally, but I did love it all in the end and we had a ball!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Ok, you know the saying ‘a magician never gives away his tricks’? Well the same is kind of true with Interior Designers….you see, we try and source the most original/beautiful/unique items and we spend hours doing so, so you won’t find many designers that will give you product details easily!

But because I am soooooo nice, I’m going to share everything about Charlie’s room with you! I know, lay your love on me now.

Let’s start with ‘The great wall of Stripe’. And let’s start with the most important fact: I taped and painted it all at about 35 weeks pregnant!!! Not an easy thing to do when you are having a 10pd, 10oz baby!

So you thought I was joking when I said I matched the wall to a onesie….I wasn’t. Here is the proof! I got out my trusty fan deck and matched the colours and then I scaled the stripes as well.

My inspiration for Charlie’ nursery was a child's room designed by Samantha Pynn. In fact I showed you here on the blog and claimed I loved it so much that it “was going straight to the pool room” (Quote from The Castle).

So as you can see it’s quite similar, but I felt I needed less red and more blue. It was then, I remembered the Sooki Baby Onesie.

1. I have specified mobiles similar to this for previous nurseries I had designed, but it really clicked when I saw this on Kelle Hampton’s blog (it was one of her sponsors, but for the life of me I cant remember who it was!). After googling how to make the globes, I found an old (or is it more trendy to say vintage?) at an Op Shop for $2 and went to town All the globes feature a place that is important to us. The towns where we were born, where we live, where we went on our honeymoon and our beautiful country.

2. How fabulous is the Ikea Spice rack. I know they have been done to death, but I love having it as a shelf above our change table. It holds a few books and toys as well as the creams we use every single time a nappy change needs to be done (for both boys!).

1. Using another page of my trusty $2 atlas, I covered a C from Cotton On Kids. The day I was doing it, was the day after the horrific earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand so I decided to share some of the ANZAC spirit and put a little of Australia and New Zealand on there.

Can I tell you how much I love the gallery wall? Love, love, love it!

1. The gorgeous Janette from My Sweet Prints gave this to Charlie as a welcome to the world present. It is beautiful, thankyou so much Janette!

2. Another My Sweet Prints print to add to my collection! I asked Janette to custom this one a little for me, as I knew I already had a few things with Charles name on it, I didn’t need his name on the print (like the standard one is), and also had the background lightened a bit.

3. I was a lucky girl and one 2 prints of my choice by Elissa Hudson. I picked this one to go in my nephews nursery, because let’s face it….I’m a pretty cool Aunty! The other, was this Sweet Dreams one for Charlie’s wall.

4. This one’s not actually a print! It’s a baby boy ‘Congratulations’ card (although it doesn’t say congratulations, just ‘Welcome to the World little one’. I was shopping for clothes for the boys (as I do regularly) at local shop, Milt and Joe (who also do on-line by the way) and noticed this lovely little card. I think it was about $4, so I picked it up and added it to my basket.

5. This is also not a print, it’s a card. I was hunting through Etsy and stumbled on The House Sparrow. Very cute prints here, you must go check it out.

6. I made this print. I tried and tried to get 2 perfect painted feet when Charlie was about 2 weeks old but failed…..I did however get 1 decent print, so I scanned it and added his details (full name and date of birth)underneath.

7. I think I was searching for moustaches on Etsy when I found this Solider print (also from The House Sparrow). I love it….reminds me of my old past time Marching…..plus one of the soldiers has red hair!

1. I’ve seen this beautiful blue chevron fabric (Premier Prints) in lots and lots of nurseries, but I couldn’t find any stockists in Australia. So I ordered it from Fabric.Com in the US. I did go a little overboard with the quantity, so you’ll probably be seeing it around this Nest a bit!

I made the cushion and also the skirt. Even if you aren’t a sewer, give the skirt a try. Really simple, all it is is 3 rectangles, hemmed (if you don’t sew, use the iron on stuff) and velcroed onto the base of the cot!

3. I love this red and white striped Sofia fabric from Ikea. You may remember I used it here to make Hugh a teepee. Unfortunately Ikea have discontinued it, in Australia anyway (booooo!).

1. Let’s add some more Ikea Spice Racks to the wall, shall I? Initially I really wanted a reading corner for Hugh in Charlie’s nursery because, let’s face it, all the hours you spend feeding, changing etc., I wanted him to be occupied. So for now, it’s mostly used by Hugh but I know Charlie will love it in the future.

2. 2 words. Book Depository. Prices are heaps cheaper than in Australia and there are no postage costs!

See the book down the bottom right hand side? It’s called Cheeky Charlie and my Dad found that when he was in Brisbane working. Another point to Dad!

1. So not a decorating piece, but I wanted to show you anyway! My Grandma made this for Charlie and he ADORES it. As soon as he lays down into bed, he reaches for it and rubs and rubs and rubs it in his face. Usually we find it laying on his face when he is sleeping.

The bookcase was in Hugh’s nursery. It was a cheapo from Officeworks and I just added some blue backing which makes the items in the bookcase really stand out.

I’ll start on the top, going left to right.

1. This wind up musical box was a Christmas present from my Mum and Dad. It’s very cute and I love that it says ‘Bear’ around the edge (we call Charlie, Charlie Bear).

2. Hugh also has these blocks, made by a family friend.

3. I searched and searched for a nice globe. I never win on Ebay and the prices are always ridiculous for vintage globes and anything new was really bright and horrible colours. This one is from Bed Bath ‘N Table. They had 4 in the store when I went and this is the only one that wasn’t damaged. Fate!

4. This monkey is so soft and cuddly, also a present from one of his fairy godmothers. The globe (I always sing, he’s got the whole world in his hands when I look at it) is from Spotlight.

5. The white tin is from Riot Art and Craft. I brought it to use for Charlie’s party next weekend, but it will be going back to the shelf. It’s holding all his rattles (Sophie, of course, a beautiful knitted soldier rattle and a few other beautiful hand made ones).

6. I have been eyeing off these soldier skittles from Ministyle for years. They are beautiful (is it bad I don’t want the boys to just look and not play with them?).

7. Another toy that my Grandma made…a cute knitted hippo.

8. Books, books, books! Yes, I ‘rainbowed’ the books and no, they do not normally look this this (refer to this post!).

9. I think I specify these suitcases in just above every nursery I do! These are from Baby’s got Style and they really not only look good, but we use them for holding all the precious baby things (hospital bracelets, cards etc.).

10. Charlie’s baptismal items. I made his special candle when he was baptised, we also have his Cradle Medal from one of his great Aunts, his beautiful silver Noah’s Ark money box from my Mum and Dad and also his angel ‘C’ from Mum and Dad.

11. What a cute collection of shoes, hey! I love the black and white Vans my youngest brother brought Hugh, but unfortunately they never fit Hugh because he has fat feet…..I’m hopeful they will fit Charlie soon! We also have gorgeous Emu uggs (sooo soft) from one of his fairy godmothers and a pair of Dunlop's (doesn’t every child in Australia have a pair of Volley’s?).

So there you have it. As you can see, many, many items were gifts (even the things I purchased, I gave them to Charlie as Christmas presents) and items I made. And as I always say, unique does not have to mean expensive!